Al-Sisi pardons jailed Al-Jazeera journalist

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi pardoned Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmi on Wednesday. The Canadian national had been slapped with a three-year jail term earlier this month for “spreading false news”. Fahmi, who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, was pardoned under a presidential decree, as were scores of activists jailed for violating Egypt’s anti-protest law.

Along with two other Al-Jazeera journalists – Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste – Fahmi was jailed following a retrial. The men were convicted of “spreading false news” and supporting Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. Greste was deported to Australia in January.

The three reporters were originally detained in Cairo in 2013 shortly after the Egyptian authorities branded the Brotherhood – the group from which ousted President Mohamed Morsi hails – as a “terrorist” organisation.

A number of western governments and rights groups had called for the journalists’ release amid an international solidarity campaign led by Al Jazeera.  The Egyptian government accuses the Qatar-based media group of harbouring bias towards the Muslim Brotherhood, an allegation that the company denies.

Relations between Cairo and Doha have been tense due to the latter’s criticism of Morsi’s ouster by the military in mid-2013.